Just Breathe
by Walelu
Summary: An attacker from out of nowhere. A one sided four against one fight. In favor of the one. What happens when the unknown begins to make itself known? Novelization of part of volume four chapter six: Tipping Point


**Just breath.**

Thuds, clangs, the footsteps and the gasps of her friends as they fought. Dust rose and fell, the cobblestone echoed as people raced across it. White noise seemed to be filling the deserted, failed attempt at a village. Failed attempt at a kingdom.

 **In and out.**

Jaune's sheild weighed down on him as their assailant leaned in towards him. Ren regained his footing. The world slowly came back into focus as Ruby shook off the heavy blow to her aura. Nora charged toward the maniacally laughing man.

 **Get up. Now.**

A frown. Silver eyes brimming with a surge of determination. The man jumped from sheild to hammer before launching up into the air.

 **Focus Ruby. Focus and...**

Ruby grabbed her scythe and got to her feet. Jaune was yelling. That she registered. But what he said exactly, didn't. The man was clinging, by his legs, to the walls of a building, high off the ground. With practiced ease.

Something was different. Something wasn't right. He shouldn't have landed a hit- he didn't land a hit. He'd made contact with Crescent Rose sure, but it shouldn't have done that kind of damage to her aura.

Ren asked who the man was. That genuinely interested her, somewhat grounding her from the panic of being attacked by a human of all things. It'd been sudden. Ren raising the alarm before a sudden attack. He'd gone strait towards her before Ren had intervened.

"Who I am matters not to you," he pointed to Nora, and Ruby focused on the oddity of his speech pattern of all things, "or you," his finger trailed to Ren, "or-" he cut himself off, his pupils retracting then dilating like a mad man, "well you do interest me." He pointed to Jaune who looked as surprised as the rest of his team. But Ruby just stood in shock.

What was even happening. It hadn't escaped her notice that the three were in front of her, protecting the injured one. It would've annoyed her a little if it'd mattered at the moment. Either way, this crazy person was still talking.

"No, I only matter to you." He pointed past their unconscious protective barrier, strait to her.

 **Wait, what?**

"Me?" A head tilt in confusion, guard immidietly raised higher when the man doubled over laughing.

 **What's going on! Who is this guy!**

 **Focus. Calm down.**

"You-" laughter, "you haven't the slightest-" more laughter, a gasp of breath "clue, do you!?" His laughter disappeared as quickly as it came, and out of the corner of her eye, Nora moved slightly closer to her.

Almost as though he wasn't the one in control, a hand raised up and slapped itself to his head. "Oh, how exiting this must be!" Ruby for one, was done with the dance of not knowing.

"What," she spoke slowly, enunciating her question to the best of her ability, "do you want?" Anger and annoyance fed themselves into her voice running rampant through her speech, making her question sound more like a statement.

He grasped his chest, like she'd said something particularly hurtful. As though he wasn't the one in the middle of attacking them. A surprised gasp. His entire body language putting the group of underage, undertrained hunters on edge, "the rose has thorns!"

 **Seriously? Creepy!**

"My little flower," his wild hand gestures made Jaune flinch a little, had his weapon had a gun, he might have been trigger happy, "I'm here to wisk you away with me!" He finished with a hand raised up into the air above his head.

 **Poetry? At a time like this?**

Out of the corner of her eye, Nora moved. "What if she doesn't want to go with you?" Mangnahild at the ready, angry expression plastered on her normal carefree and silly face, Nora was not happy.

Likewise, the happy expression dropped off of the man's face, almost like a palpable object slamming to the floor. A bored expression replaced it, like changing a mask. "Well," it sounded more like he was expelling a calming breath then saying the word, "I'll take her."

 **WHAT?!**

Focus and calm were forgotten, and Ruby despretly tried to hang onto her calm exterior as her eyes flitted to Jaune. At that moment, his expression was not much different from Nora's. "We're not, going to let you do that." He too moved, blocking both Ruby and Nora.

The man took a deep breath, his pupils dialating before shrinking, "Good." Expelsion of air along with the word, the man seemed to slide across the floor once it was finished, he almost seemed to disappear. Before anyone else could even process what was happening. Ren seemed to move faster then life itself, a word flying out of his mouth a split second before his weapons were raised, in the direction of his friends.

Panic surged through Ruby before she could even process what it was, and by that time, Ren was ricocheting bullets off of Jaune's sheild and strait for the attacking man who'd appeared between the sword wielder and the scythe wielder.

Suddenly the man was jumping straight over Jaune and still dodging bullets from Ren.

 **What to do. What to do!**

She launched herself at the man, only to be kicked hard enough to be sent flying before she could land a single hit. This guy moved fast! The kick slammed into her shoulder and nocked out another big chunch of her aura, sapping it away as she flew. All this happening before Jaune could even look up from his defensive position on the ground.

Thinking quickly, she swung her weapon under her and stopped herself, coming to a halt as Jaune grabbed his sword. Just by looking Ruby knew he moved as fast as he possibly could, but the attacker still dodged his sideways swing, bending over strait backwards before twisting and turning up to kick Jaune strait in the head with one foot, and slammed him away with another kick to the head.

Jaune's yells burned into her ears. They weren't getting out without a fight. They were already in a fight. They were loosing. They were outclassed. They couldn't win. They-

 **Shut up!** **Back to present. Focus!**

He was running towards Nora. He was picking off her friends, one by one. Her mind raced. Adrenaline pumped through her body, her aura had taken a hard hit, Jaune was mostly out for the count, two hard hitting head shots sending him flying. She loaded her weapon.

She aimed carefully. She hadn't quite used this ability to its fullest in a long time.

 **Breathe.**

Her finger rested on the trigger and everything slowed down. The man's footsteps seemed to almost float in time before landing, Nora's movements seemed nonexistent.

 **Find your mark.**

She found her mark. The perfect use for the ammo. The group used this type of dust mostly for this very purpose anyways.

 **Carefully and gently. Slamming the trigger won't do any good.**

What seemed like hours were only nano seconds as Ruby pressed the trigger.

 **Good.**

Just like that, time sped back up. Nora was raising her hammer and the man was shooting towards her. Ruby's job was done, now the waiting game. Electricity sparked through the projectile and the man looked over his shoulder, a hint of fear that disappeared as soon as he realized it wouldn't hit him.

True to her sniper style though, The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. Her shot had hit its mark. Nora's eyes widened, taken completely off guard as it sent her flying, taking her out for the man.

He stood there dumbfounded before repeating the same unconscious looking movement of slapping a hand to his face. His laughter struck the unnerving spectrum and neared its peak, as the man doubled over, maniacle laughter escaping him with a life of its own. He'd turned back to Ruby, his back facing the downed girl.

"Well," he wiped a tear of laughter from his eye, and gained a strangely composed stature, "if that isn't ironic." Which it wasn't.

 **What about that is even ironic at all?**

Behind him though, Nora was on her feet, electricity shooting across her body as though she controlled it's very will. Ruby smiled knowingly, before realizing she'd clued him in. The man turned, but Nora was already gone, just as he had to Jaune before, she attacked from behind.

Hammer slammed down. Dust shot up. Ren had run to check on Jaune, and now both rose to their feet. Nora had done it. There was no way this guy would be walking.. away from... that...

 **What the Hell! (Hell is a place it's not a swear(Does it matter!?)**

Nora's weapon never truely hit its mark. Oh it landed sure, but, did it really? The man stood, on all fours almost, with that same insane smile plastered across his face, a giggle made its way from his throat. Nora looked completely shocked. A tail, creepy and dark, with a sharp stinger on the end, effortlessly held the brunt of Nora's force.

"Surprise!" His hands raised into the air as though he were congratulating someone. Suddenly he moved. Two more kicks, this time to Nora's head. He liked kicks, and he liked kicking high. His lowest hit had been Ruby's shoulder. Nora was sent tumbling back, and he jumped up to the roof of an abandoned house.

Or maybe no one had ever gotten to live in it in the first place. He stood, poised and strong. The group below had taken a heavy hit. Jaune was just barely still in the so called came, Ruby was, at best, at half of her aura, Nora was down at the moment but barely hanging in, and, well, Ren was doing pretty okay, besides his earlier hits from the man. He probably had a bit more then Ruby.

"He's a.. a Faunus." Ren observed in shock, slightly lowering his weapons. Jaune stared up at him and Ruby stepped forward.

"What is this about!? The White Fang? Roman Torchwick?"

He spit out the 'p' at the start of his word heavy response, "Plastic soldiers and pawn!" He was so immersive with his movements. It was... weird. "My heart and body belong only to my goddess." He bowed.

The only other person Ruby could think of who had underlings was, "Cinder." Her voice was barely audiable, sounding more like a growl then anything else.

But then, the man was a Faunus.

"Only in her wildest dreams." He shot off the roof like a lightning bolt and flew between Jaune and Ruby, landing behind, but between the two. Once again, he was not so subtly separating Ruby from the remainder of the group. He deployed his razor like weapons.

 **Beating a Faunus is hard on normal terms, but he outclasses us by so much... How do you win against that? I couldn't even beat Blake...**

In one move, he went from behind to between, his tail whipping out and slamming Crescent Rose down, much to Ruby's panicked desperation. She was quick though, spinning it back around herself and just barely missing the man as she slashed outwards. He was quicker though, slamming his weapon into hers and sending her flying.

Immobolizing her so he could take out her friends. He shot towards Ren, who's eyes widened. He just barely managed to evade two shots from the stinger. It occurred to him that this guy wasn't actually trying to hit him.

He was just playing with his prey.

Jaune was running back towards him. The man kicked Ren away, sending him flying and depleting the more of his aura in one well placed kick to the back of his shoulders.

Without realizing it, Jaune was next.

 **I've gotta get up... Gotta help my friends!**

Jaune was kicked back and Nora was up, picking up the slack. Nora was nocked back and Ren shot into the fray. He jumped and tried to land a hit, but had to jump back away, his aura was too low to stand another hit. He just barely landed on his feet, crumpling to the ground as Nora dropped beside him.

Jaune was barely on his feet, leaning heavily on his sheild just to stay up.

 **Oh no.**

He planned it! He'd planned the whole thing out. They couldn't protect her, and she couldn't protect herself. Not alone anyways. But here she was, alone. Fending off strong blow after strong blow. Her aura dropping even more with each hit.

Suddenly she was in the air, Crescent Rose flying away, too far to retrieve at that moment. Before she could hit the hard, painful ground, the man was there again, his foot slamming into the soft flesh of her stomach.

Pain.

It shot through her like lightning. She barely registered the ground as she slammed into it, her body taking the damage from the earth. He'd broken through her aura.

 **Oh no oh no oh no. Oh crap.**

She tried to pick herself up, she really did.

 **Get up! You have to get up!**

But she couldn't make it past half sitting. He was coming towards her, she could hear his footsteps. She knew her friends were to injured to help. She had no aura. No protection. No weapon.

She could hear the strange cracking of the man's tail as it was raised to slam itself into her.

Terror shot through her body as she forced herself to look up at the sound of his laughter. His eyes switched from a dangerous yellow to a sickly purple.

 **Who... who is he...**

The stinger shot towards her and she flinched away, squeezing her eyes shut and dropping her head to face towards the ground **.**

The sound of an object slamming into metal clanged through her ears, startling her into a moment of disbelief. The white noise, present from the moment the fight had started, seemed to faze out a bit. A sense of safety came over her even before she looked up.

Terror glinted still through her silver eyes as she looked up slightly, hair falling over her right eye a bit. Recognition didn't settle in until she looked fully up at the figure standing before her, eyes closed, a relived smile that somehow still looked like a smirk. Arm positioning a large sword over his back in a slack and calm kind of way.

Looking relieved, he had causally blocked a potentially fatal attack.

Qrow Branwen stood before her. His posture that of relief.

Uncle Qrow had made it in the nick of time.

Uncle Qrow could beat him, whoever he was, she knew he could.

Her terror and unease turned into borderline tearful relief, and she found herself unable to ununciate anything. Her voice came out as a relieved sound. Her uncle made a somewhat matching sound, and opened his eyes. He looked down at her, a look that conveyed so much words he couldn't say in that moment.

But he did say one word. And to Ruby, it seemed like so much more then it really was.

"Hey."


End file.
